He's been a dad to 100 foster kids

Sunday

Jun 19, 2011 at 12:01 AMAug 15, 2012 at 12:26 PM

LINDA TRIMBLE, Staff writer

ORANGE CITY -- Their afternoon naps over, the chubby little girl with a perennial smile crawled across the living room and pulled herself up on the coffee table while her still sleepy foster brother cuddled with Kim White on the couch.

It wasn't long before the brother, too, was on the move, toddling around the room before climbing into Bill White's lap.

The Whites are foster parents to four children, including the two toddlers, and have three children of their own ranging in age from 7 to 19.

With that many children under one roof, their Orange City home is always in motion.

Bill White is a stay-at-home dad who keeps everyone moving in the right direction while his 40-year-old wife works as a trainer for prospective foster parents and studies at Seminole State College for a degree in respiratory therapy. Bill White, 45, who has college degrees in criminal justice and economics, is also a mentor for new and prospective foster parents.

It's a natural role for a man who started working with juvenile offenders in Vermont in 1988 and went on to direct a therapeutic group home for seven years for boys transitioning out of the juvenile justice system.

The Whites, who moved to Florida in 2004, have been foster parents to more than 100 children since they married in 1998. One girl in Vermont stayed with them only four days. Another child lived with the Whites for two and a half years. Most have stayed with the family for more than a year.

The best part of being a foster dad, White said, is "watching people grow. You see so many kids succeed."

The key to that, he said, is listening to the foster children about their interests and finding outlets for them. That could range from fixing up a clunker with a teenage boy interested in cars or encouraging 14-year-old Paxton and 12-year-old Antonio -- two of the Whites' current foster children -- to pursue their interests in music and art.

Only the first names of the foster children were provided because of confidentiality laws protecting their identities.

Moving in with the Whites last August required some big adjustments for Paxton. "I grew up with just my dad and me," she said. "Coming here and sharing a room and gathering everybody for dinner, it's different."

But Paxton has found plenty of benefits in joining a large family. "I like having someone to play with," she said. "I always wanted a little sister. You can teach them stuff."

The system has changed over the years, the Whites said, with children encouraged to have contact with their biological parents while they're in foster care so that when and if the family is ready to be reunited there will be a smoother transition.

Antonio, for example, talks almost daily with his father in Panama. He'll be going to live with him there as soon as his passport is issued.

Seven-year-old Sydney, the Whites' youngest biological child, said it's hard to say goodbye when a foster sibling returns home or is adopted, but she likes having extra brothers and sisters around.

"It's really fun. They come to live with us and see how our family does," Sydney said.

For her parents, taking care of foster children is a daily living lesson in the values they want to instill in their own children.

"We hope it's teaching them that when you can, you give to other people," said Kim White.